Christmas present for our cleaner

[SilverBirchTree]

DH and I are in disagreement about how much to tip the people who clean our house. Previously would give the equivalent of one clean as a Christmas present to the one lady who cleaned our tiny old flat.

Have since moved to a larger home and hired new cleaners - who clean as a duo. Cleaning fee is also double what we paid earlier (fair enough- there is more to clean).

DH thinks we need to pay each of the cleaners the equivalent of one cleaning visit at the new higher rate.

I think it would be ok to give them much less, although I am not sure how much.

If we go with DH's plan- we'll be spending more on Christmas for our cleaners than we will on each other or our parents, which I find a bit odd.

What do other people do?

We have bought 2 Elemis 5 piece sets for our cleaners DD1 gets a good discount so we’ve ended up spending about £42 on each of our cleaners. We also have 2 cleaners they have been cleaning the house for us weekly for 10 years this year

We have a team too. I give the price of one cleaning and split it among the team.

You are overthinking it. Why are you hung up over the cost of your gift being equivalent to what you pay them for their work? Just get them a nice gift each which shows them that you appreciate them.

I pay a week’s extra cash and then chocolates or a bottle of wine and a card. Mine is only £20 a week though, so not a big extravagance.

I would also split the cost of one clean between them, perhaps a small box of chocolates too.

@Warpdrive I thought that customarily people tip the cleaners that amount, happy to be corrected though.

We pay £100 a fortnight so it's a considerable sum of money if we give them both that amount.

I would rather give a gift but I don't want them to think I'm miserly, if they are
expecting a fortnight's pay and instead receive my homemade shortbread...

I think you give them £25 each

Well not in my world 😁 I don’t have a cleaner but I do have window cleaner, dog walkers, gardeners. They all get a present which is probably more than the equivalent of what I pay for one session, but I don’t measure it that way. I think it’s sad when gift giving gets prescriptive like that.

Mines getting a bottle of good pink gin !

Mine get a box of chocolates

I think they'd be happy with £25 each, I would! I'm a self employed cleaner, some of my clients give me a weeks pay some nothing and others recycled smellies or chocolates.

Guess which are my favourites? who I know appreciate me the most and who I'd stay with if I was cutting my work right down.

Thanks @Loobyloo16 will try and get DH to agree to £25 & a tin of shortbread each.

We pay our cleaner £20 a week, I think I'll put £20 in a card for her and buy her kids a chocolate Santa each or something.

My cleaner comes once a fortnight and gets £30. I bought her a set of Cath Kidston hand creams and gave her a tenner extra

My duo are a couple so I've bought them a small hamper (£30) looks pretty impressive for the money!

I think it varies and there is no right answer. Ours works 30hrs a week so we see a lot of her.
We give double pay (a weeks worth) and I have spent around £100 on gifts for her.
I don’t believe there should be any expectation and you should do what you are comfortable with.

Good thread. Thank you for posting because I was wondering the same thing about our cleaners (also a team, but I don’t know how many there are as they clean when I’m out)

AdoreTheBeach
Perhaps get a hamper for them to share. M&S have some nice ones.

We have a cleaning business and every year the cleaning staff are given tips or gifts from most of our clients. They are always thrilled and post pics of gifts and messages written in their cards to our staff facebook group.

A few years back when I was the regular cleaner, the thing i enjoyed the most at xmas was the messages of thanks and appreciation written into the cards they gave me.

Don't get me wrong I appreciated cash and gifts too especially wine or champagne but the messages and lovely feedback within the cards meant the most to me personally, I just felt so treasured and it seems our cleaning staff feel the same way, a few lovely words can be the best gift of all and makes you feel that all your hard work is valued.

Oh also, I know it's early yet but client pressies are beginning to roll in already and this year the best thing ever happened ... an elderly lady client send US a present via her regular cleaner, by us I mean myself and our office manager! She actually remembered us working away behind the scenes to provide her with good service, as well as the cleaner she sees each week, we were SO touched, it was absolutely charming of her.

I think especially at Christmas, everyone loves to feel appreciated and remembered for the work that they do, even if it's not a customer facing role. We thought it was so sweet of her and as someone mentioned upthread, if we ever have to scale back on clients, which can happen on occasion if a couple of staff leave us at the same time, this lady will always be on our books as long as she wants our service.

Also, slightly off topic, every year we treat all our staff to a meal out on the night our offices close for Xmas and they each get a gift from us. Of course, the more staff we have the more expensive this becomes for us but I couldn't not do it. Everyone deserves to feel appreciated for their work. I love our xmas dos!

Wtf?! Mine got a big box of chocs and a nice card and I paid 2 weeks in advance (so no monetary tip but she gets paid 2 weeks in one go) I thought this was good and she was really happy. Now I feel tight but that's all I could afford.

Mine gets a tin of nice biscuits and £20 tip. She works on her own now but she used to come as a pair with another lady, when it was two of them they got a tin and £10 each - so I split it between them.

I got mine a Christmas candle and Christmas food like a shortbread tin or panetonne this year. In previous years I've bought her nice toiletries like White company hand wash and hand cream.

Got to agree with dangle. I've just arrived at a clients to a Christmas card with a weeks extra pay and thanking me for my hard work, the words mean as much as the money, well almost :)

Only problem now is I look at clients who don't give me anything or say kind words completely differently!

I pay £50 a week for my cleaner. At Xmas I give her £100 in a card and will pay her for the week between Xmas and New Year but not expect her to clean. I always just give cash on the basis that cleaning is not the world’s best paid job and she’d probably rather choose how to spend any bonus than have me inflict my choice of food or alcohol on her.